It's inexcusable and unforgivable. I was just getting into the show, which is a quality series. But not if the horses are sacrificed to entertainment. Still, you have to wonder if the low ratings were the real reason for HBO's decision.

Always likely, but HBO has stuck with shows with ratings lower than Luck's. The real reason seems to be PeTA, which has been on HBO's case right from the start. PeTA says postmortem blood testing on the three horses revealed the presence of drugs that shouldn't have been in their systems, a claim the animal-handlers stoutly deny. Whatever the real reason, HBO did the right thing.

The drugs were to relive pain in inflamed joints, all the horses used in the show were washed up and arthritic. they were finished with racing and weren't even worked out anymore, but they were made to run full out for the racing scenes sometimes twice a day.

Well, I hope they're held to account for that decision. Made to clean out stables for the next 20 years.

On a less important matter, appendicitis got rid of Survivor's snotty guy when his tribemates wouldn't. Colton's bellyache turned out to be quite serious and he's out of the game. He took his immunity idol with him as a souvenir rather than give it to his tribe to help save themselves. Selfish to the last.